Identity theft is not just a consumer protection issue but also an economic issue, law enforcement issue, and a national security issue. Consumers do not seem to have faith any more in the current identity protection system and feel powerless. It is the consumers who are ultimately affected by identity theft not only financially, but also emotionally and physically. Consumers are traumatized when their identity is stolen, and it is difficult to put a value on such trauma.
Consumers are frustrated with the need to remember numerous passwords that they set for different systems. Consumers are also frustrated with the seemingly endless need to change their passwords for various systems. Consumers are further frustrated by loss of personal information via the postal system, diversion of personal mail in the wrong hands, misuse of solicitations, stolen computer data, credit card change when some illegal activity is suspected, and loss of productivity in shredding documents containing personal information, clean up of cookies on PCs (Personal Computers), watching out for illegal system intrusions, and the constant worrying about valuable personal information that may be stolen from home, office or laptop computers, mobile PCs, mobile telephones, etc.
Consumers just do not feel secure any more as far as their personal identity information is concerned. Nowadays, it is not so difficult to uncover someone's date of birth and/or social security number. In fact, such sensitive personal information may be available on the World-Wide Web (WWW). Computer users are often lured into visiting seemingly legitimate websites (also known as “phishing”) where e-mail containing sensitive personal information is being intercepted for the purpose of illegally acquiring the same. The term “phishing” generally refers to a method of identity theft carried out through the creation of a website that seems to represent a legitimate company. Visitors to such websites are asked to submit personal information to the website. Criminal elements operating the website use the submitted personal information for their own purposes, or sell the submitted personal information to third parties for profit.
It is no longer safe to discard papers containing personal information in the trash; as such papers may be retrieved by criminals who plow through trash cans for pieces of non-shredded personal information such as personnel records, payroll information, insurance papers, account information, bank statements, tax documents, pre-approved credit offers, convenience checks, etc. Some criminals gain legitimate access to someone's home and personal information such as through household work, babysitting, healthcare, friends or roommates. Other criminals gain personal information by fraudulently posing as someone who has a legitimate reason to access the victim's personal information (e.g. a landlord or employer asking for background information). Yet others trick the consumer into providing personal identifying or financial data over the telephone, intercept account information sent via e-mail, online chat session(s), etc.
Moreover, today's economy increasingly relies on non-cash transactions between business enterprises and consumers, such as via personal checks, credit/debit cards. Credit/debit cards may be lost or stolen resulting in unauthorized charges by unscrupulous users who assume the identity of the credit card holder. Such unauthorized users draw cash and or incur various charges against the cardholder's account for their own benefit. For example, some criminally inclined restaurant employees may use the printed impression of the customer credit/debit card number with the customer signature to charge online purchases for their own benefit. Various other schemes are being used to illegally gain access to legitimate customer bank accounts, online store credit accounts and/or the like.